Onward and Upward

My entire life is on my desktop computer calendar. Appointments, intentions, to-do lists, recurring monthly or yearly dates to remember. It’s easy to update and keeps everything in one place. Decades ago, my entire life was in my pocket calendar in ink, more limited in scope but always with me. My friends and relations now use mobile phones to get the best of both worlds.

Technology keeps changing. Human nature doesn’t. We’ve always created ways to track the cycle of the seasons; now we can track in more detail. We’ve always craved communication; now we can connect over longer distances. We’ve had schoolyard fights as long as we’ve had schools; now we have more lethal methods to worry about. We’ve always had conspiracy theories and misinformation; now technology lets them spread farther and faster.

Two hundred years from now we may know more, live longer, and have more powerful tools to carry out our wishes, for better or worse. I’m not convinced we’ll have fewer wars, greater justice, more compassion, or less hate. Does that mean to shrug at the futility of it all? To forget about the seventh generation and a world better than we found it? Of course not. Action now can bring material benefits for the future. Institutionalizing positive values makes them harder to reverse. New knowledge has potential to improve lives, even if I’m right that human nature will stay much the same.

Besides, I may be wrong.

Image: The Chicago World’s Fair celebrated the city’s first century of technological innovation.